It's flu season, but in Cape area Norovirus may be bigger culprit for school closings

Flu numbers are running high in Cape Girardeau County, though it’s nothing out of the ordinary for a typical flu season, according to Autumn Grim, the director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center.

Several school districts in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties have closed at different times this winter due to illnesses spreading at their schools. Notre Dame Regional High School was the most recent school to cancel classes. But it appears that norovirus may be the bigger culprit.

Grim said the Cape Girardeau County numbers for the week ending Feb. 1 were 149 cases for Influenza A and one case of Influenza B. That’s a rate of 188.7 per 100,000 people, which is typical for February, the height of the flu season.

Cape Girardeau County is not seeing the surge other states are seeing, Grim said.

Flu symptoms are being reported at the highest level in 15 years in New York, according to multiple media outlets in that state.

Grim said the rise in flu cases in the Cape Girardeau area is happening simultaneously with the surging Norovirus, “so it’s tough for schools right now, since both conditions are very contagious.” She said there is a spreading norovirus strain that hasn’t circulated in the U.S. for a while, so many do not have immunity to it. Norovirus typically causes vomiting and diarrhea. Norovirus is often commonly known as the “stomach flu” or “stomach bug” but is not related to the flu.

Grim said closing schools and/or businesses due to illness might not do the job in tamping down the flu.

The best way to combat the illness is to be vigilant with cleaning and to stay home when sick.

Grim said, the “biggest recommendation for organizations and schools is to shift culturally to allow staff/students to stay home when sick rather than coming to work and exposing more individuals. Closure isn’t an effective means of controlling spread since once you open back up the cycle starts all over again. Good environmental cleaning goes a long way with most communicable diseases, but it’s a temporary solution once you have people back in the setting contaminating the environment. Some schools will close to do environmental cleaning, which certainly helps slow the spread, but routine daily environmental cleaning for those high-touch surfaces goes a long way as well throughout flu season.

“Many people can’t afford to miss work so they will come to work sick and expose others, that is one of the most compounding factors during flu season,” Grim said. “Couple that with the fact that you are infectious 24-48 hours before symptom onset and it’s virtually impossible to stop spread altogether. If individuals washed their hands, stayed home when sick, and ensured that they were limiting touching the face (particularly eyes and nose), they might escape flu season without becoming infected.”